Some Considerations of the Behavior of Fission Gas Bubbles in Mixed-Oxide Fuels

The critical size for a bubble pinned to a dislocation to continue motion has been evaluated. The result differs from earlier line-tension models. A statistical method for treating bubble coalescence has been developed in which bubble-size distribution is defined in terms of the number of gas atoms in a bubble on a logarithmic scale. Based on this method, a swelling and gas-release model is developed and discussed. The resulting model can be readily adapted to numerical computation.